Language Hemispheric Dominance in Patients with Congenital Lesions of Eloquent Brain

Abstract

Patients with AVMs affecting the left perisylvian regions recruited the right hemisphere into language processing networks during early development, presumably in response to congenitally aberrant circulation. This early right hemisphere recruitment in the AVM patients exceeded the similar process in the brains of stroke patients whose left cortical language networks were damaged in adulthood. Our data provide evidence of effective plasticity in the developing human brain compared with the mature brain response to injury. Knowledge of cortical language representation should assist presurgical planning in patients with developmental anomalies affecting apparently language-dominant brain regions.